Hey everyone! This is my second Oofuri fic! I'm so excited to get started right away, but first I have to apologise. Through the fic you might notice my writing style is changing…again. Why? I dunno. I'm not going to tell what it is, for then it'll probably ruin the whole story so please R&R. But foremost Enjoy!

Disclaimer: I don't own Ookiku furikabutte.

How to…

Kanou rubbed the back of his head, trying to focus on his homework which lay in front of him on his desk. The ever growing pile had been glaring at him for some time now, and he finally got the courage to sit down and actually start working on it. He didn't want things to get this bad, but baseball training took a lot of time, and he wasn't the type to sit still. Basically, he didn't feel like making it. It wasn't like he was a total idiot, on the contrary, most of the things got surprisingly easily into his brain, which would remember it perfectly for a long time. He sighed. Homework was annoying.
The faint light his lamp threw onto the white paper made him drift off from time to time, especially since it was math he was working on. During class he would make it more interesting for himself to bring everything about math parallel with baseball. Like trajectory, length and stuff like that. But when studying, one could not apply that just to stay awake. This was the moment he actually had to make it happen. There was a Big test tomorrow. Yup, with capital letter B. He'd only thought about it since he heard his classmates talk about how they'd been preparing for two weeks now. Kanou had to admit that he'd freaked out at first, he didn't want to repeat a year after all. But now, sitting in front of his notes, it didn't seem difficult at all. Rather enormously annoying. Sighing he sat back. Back in the yard there was his pitching training ground and his muscles were begging him to go out there instead of staying inside studying. It took him all his willpower to stay in place and at least try to focus on the task at hand. It wasn't really working.

"Shuu-chan!" he heard a familiar voice as he jumped in his seat, nearly getting a heart attack as a girl crawled in through his window.

"Aah!" she yelped, as she suddenly tended to fall backwards. Quickly he shot up from his place, grabbing her by the elbows and pulling her in.

"How many times have I told you not to come through here?" he yelled, flustered and out of breath.

"Hehe, sorry." Ruri replied as she smiled sheepishly, rubbing the back of her head.

Kanou smiled, even after knowing them for years he still couldn't find himself totally believing the lively girl in front of him and Ren were actually cousins. Well, things had been going wrong for her cousin for a while, guess it was something to be expected.

"You're not sorry, are you?" he asked while sighing, standing up, pulling her up along with him.

"No. Not really." she agrees with him fairly easily and Kanou finds himself unable to fight off the smile that's creeping onto his face.

"By the way, isn't it kind of disgraceful for a girl, climbing up like that?" he asked.

She glares at him. "Your point? You want me out?"

Immediately his hands go up in a sign of peace. "No, no. I mean, won't the neighbours think it's, you know…indecent?"

"Indecent?" she echoed, suddenly making him feel awkward. "In what way?" she asks, an evil smirk showing.

"I mean…we're not…kids anymore…so…"

"So you think people will think something's going on?" she finished, smiling broadly.

"Well, yeah."

"Would you mind?"

His eyes widened. "What do you mean?"

"Would you mind if they thought that?" she repeated her question.

He thought about it for a moment, not able to think of any other reply than: "No."

Her smile widened after which she dropped down on his bed.

"Homework?" she guessed, the tension -or was it electricity?- immediately disappeared.

"Yeah." he replied lazily, sitting down once again, glancing at his notes.
"Got some trouble?" she questioned, seeing how grim he looked.
"Not really."
"Then why the long face?" she asked.
"Don't know. It's just innerving."
She burst into a fit of giggles, making him blush deep red.
"Now what?" he asked, getting a bit irritated, even if he loved her way of giggling.
"That's just what homework's all about, right?" she replied, stifling her laughter and wiping away a stray tear.
"Guess so." he sighed, not able to fight off a small smile that crept up his face. She noticed too, and for a while, they sat in a comfortable silence.

"What did I expect?" Ruri mumbled towards her ceiling, as she lay upon her bed, staring up. The moonlight stroke her arm which she held stretched out, as if reaching for the distance. She sighed, it was useless. No matter how close they were, there were some boundaries. Boundaries Ruri wished could just disappear. One of them was the fact that they'd grown up together. Perhaps that was why she first had the feeling he was off boundaries. But once she'd gotten over than one obstacle, there was another one. Perhaps an even high obstacle than just growing up together. Baseball. No matter how you look at it, growing up together perhaps had its good points, but baseball… Once more she sighed, turning onto her side, looking out of the window. The moon stood high in the night sky, lighting almost her whole room with its kind, soft light.
'Baseball, huh?' she wondered. She knew well enough what it was like, being a baseball fanatic. She'd seen RenRen, and how focussed he was on his game. Heck, she'd tried pulling him inside when he would be practicing for hours on end. Kanou was just like RenRen. She'd often hear him train. Also, being a regular meant he had an immensely packed training schedule, a girlfriend -she nearly couldn't even think the word!- would just bother him. Ruri fought back a stray tear. She shouldn't cry over someone who wasn't even her boyfriend! There was just no way he would be interested in her in that particular way. For that, his big head was filled to much with baseball. Perhaps she should try to forget him and her. Or the possibility for there to be an us. Sighing she closed her eyes, trying to let sleep overtake her. Tomorrow was another day. And perhaps she could even get over everything that was constantly clouding her thinking.
'Tomorrow will be better.' she told herself before she drifted off.

"…" Kanou feels the bad aura before it even shows on his catcher's face. There's no way even one of them could ignore this. Something was off.
"You're not focussing?" Hatake asks, softly dropping the ball in Kanou's glove.
"That's no it." Kanou immediately mumbles, not really sure what was going on. Before anything more can be exchanged between the two players, a third joins them casually.
"Something wrong?" the tall first base asks as he stops in front of both of his team mates.
"No. Nothing." Kanou replies quickly. "Just…" he falters making his friends exchange looks.
"What I came here for…" Oda begins.
Kanou looks up, the only thing he notices is the thumb of Oda pointing at something behind him. Without even listening to what the taller guy was saying Kanou searches for what he was pointing at. His stomach twisted into a knot when he found out what exactly it was.

As quickly as he could he ran up to her. Why had she come here today? No, rather why was she here at all?
"Ruri?" he asked, a tad bit out of breath.
"Hey Kanou-kun!" she says with a kind smile.
'Kanou-kun?' he wonders, slightly taken aback by the sudden distance between them. Not only the fence separating them, but also the way she was currently talking to him. It's been years since she last called him Kanou, and that was when they were fighting over something neither of them even remembered. Was something going on?
"What's wrong?" he asks, really wanting to know why she had come here. Not that he minded, but there must've been a reason for her to go out of her way.
"Here." she told him, pushing something through the fence.
Carefully he took it. It was a piece of paper, and as he unfolded it, a smile crept onto his face.
"It's the fifth problem of physics where you had some trouble with." she says, smiling up warmly at him.
"Thanks!" he exclaims, not having expected this.
"Don't worry about it!" she replies after which someone behind her calls out her name.
His eyes widen as he realises it's Masaru-kun from her class. Why were they hanging out together? Before he was really aware of it, a different knot from before had formed in his stomach and he was suddenly annoyed that the fence was standing between him and Ruri.
"I'm coming!" he hears her exclaim as she waves frantically, something she'd done from the time they were kids.
"I have to go now. See you soon!" she says, bowing politely -which suddenly bothers him even though she's been doing that since, well, forever- and disappearing.
He stands there, somewhat dumbfounded for some time, before he suddenly hears his catchers voice behind him.
"Kanou, we still have some training to do."
He nods -a bit dazed- and turns around to follow Hatake.

Ruri had to fight back tears as she lay in her bed. The method one of her best friends had come up with -going to a karaoke with some other guy than Kanou- felt wrong. She felt as if it actually hurt her more than it would ever do to Shuugo himself. Her eyes widened. No! She couldn't keep using his first name! Not even in her thoughts. To protect herself from pain, she had to distance herself from him. Both for him and herself. She had to stay strong in this matter. He cell phone went off, and she found herself opening the thing with more anticipation she should allow herself to have. She sighed noticing it was Fuu-chan, her friend who was 'coaching' her in her troubles in love. The message didn't contain much. Only asking her how it went with Masaru. She immediately replied, telling her friend all she felt. To her surprise her blonde friend didn't immediately respond. Why could that be? Ruri shook it off, even if her friend was a pro in the love department -that was the impression she gave, wearing real women's clothes and acting like an adult- she would still have some research to do about how to respond to Ruri's text. But as time passed and Fuu still didn't reply, a weird worrying started to take over Ruri's thoughts.

As the team ended their training, the sun had already set for a few hours. Everyone was beat, and Kanou wasn't happy with the training results. His mind hadn't been focussed on pitching. Something catastrophic if you wanted to become the ace of the team. Splashing water in his face he tried to shake of the disappointment he felt from practice and tried to focus on the next training instead. Only, something kept him from doing that. Ruri's face kept popping up in his mind, and the way she had been looking at him bothered him as well. Why didn't she look more like…like Ruri? She wasn't supposed to look like that! Not that he could actually point out what was off though.
"Oi, Kanou." he heard Hatake's voice roam somewhere behind him, and he suddenly wondered how long the catcher had been trying to get his attention. Shit, was he losing his edge?
"What?" he asked short, making the number 2 blink a few times.
"Look, I know something's off…and…" he wandered off.
"And?" Kanou asked, getting annoyed fast, even for his doing.
"Well, Oda says he has an idea why you're this on edge…"
"And that is?"
He didn't get an answer, well not direct anyway. The team's catcher just handed him a book he had obviously gotten from the first base.
"How to…." a huge blush spread over Kanou's face.
"What. The. Hell. Is. This?" he asked, voice low and threatening.
"Don't act that way!" Oda -suddenly appearing- said, throwing an arm around Kanou's shoulders. "You should realise yourself we're right about this!"
"We?" Kanou asked, slowly turning his head towards Hatake who turned pale under the pitcher's mental pressure.
"Come on!" Oda continued "Read it, perhaps you find something interesting."
"That's one way of looking at it." Kanou said, blushing.

"By the way…" Oda's voice interrupted his thoughts once more, pulling his attention towards someone obviously waiting for him, seeing as she waved at him. His eyes widened.

Ruri couldn't help it. She was worrying. Why didn't Fuu respond to any of her messages? Normally the girl would reply within two minutes, but now, she didn't even reply at all! Not even after she sent her seven messages! Something was off, and somehow -she didn't even know why- she felt bad. Really bad. As if something was about to happen. Leaning her head on her arms which lay over each other on the windowsill she looked at the street, occasionally glancing whether or not Shuugo, no, Kanou was already home. He wasn't. She knew because there was no light -his parents were out as well- and she couldn't hear sounds of a baseball hitting the target he had set up himself. Her attention got caught when she heard some well-known giggling. 'Fuu!' she thought, pushing herself up slightly. Her eyes widened as her friend came into view. She wasn't alone. Ruri quickly hid herself behind the wall, after which she checked once more. There was no mistaking it. Fuu wasn't alone. She was walking next to Kanou! But, she wasn't going home with him, right? Right?
Her heart ached as she saw both of them entering his house, and she slid down against the wall, trying desperately to calm herself down. It just couldn't be. Fuu was her best friend, and Shuugo was…he was… Her eyes saddened. Yes, what was he? She hugged her knees, hiding her face in her arms.

To say Kanou was surprised to find one of Ruri's best friends near the baseball field was an understatement. If it wasn't for Oda pushing him her way, he would've stood there perplexed, only thinking about that she was mistaking him for someone else.
"Hello, Kanou-san." the blonde had greeted him, to which he nodded.
"Hello…" he faltered.
She sweat dropped the slightest and he noticed some annoyance in there too, even though she was very capable of hiding it. She must've been training on that.
"Fuu." she filled him in.
"What's going on?" he asked, feeling irritated for all of his team mates were watching and giggling. And giggling for guys just wasn't cool. Not at all for that matter.
"I wanted to talk to you about something…"
"Does it have to be today?" he asked, being bothered for trivial things wasn't his thing.
"Or rather someone." she finished, his interest once more piqued.
"Who?" he asked, raising one eyebrow.

She hadn't replied him. Not even giving him a clue. So, he'd done what she'd asked. Apparently whatever this girl wanted to tell him, wasn't for everyone to hear, and somehow, if he was very honest, hope had settled in his stomach. Hope that what he had noticed in Ruri earlier was what she was going to talk about. And because of that reason, he'd brought her home with him. Not sure when his parents were going to be home he'd settled in the living room, but she was set on seeing his bedroom. He had sighed, not seeing the importance of where they were to the conversation, but because he couldn't control his interest any longer, he'd complied.

As he threw his bag onto his bed, a single book fell out, landing onto the blanket, he sat down, telling her to take the only chair.
She nodded sweetly, elegantly sitting down and crossing her legs over each other. He tried not to pay attention to the way she was glancing at him. His interests just weren't like that.
"You wanted to talk to me about something important?" he reminded her as she began some small talk about his room.
She glanced down at him. "Yes, I did."
"And that is?"
"Are you always this hasty?"
"If it really is this important that you have to come here just to tell me, yes." he replied, quickly losing patience with the girl.
"Okay then." she started. "It's about Ruri, me and Us."
"Ruri?"
"Is that the only thing you heard?" she asked, an angry blush starting to form on her cheeks.
He blinked a few times, not liking the way she was acting after only being there for five minutes. Way too bossy for his taste. Well, it wasn't like she was the one taunting his mind the whole day. Luckily. He smiled apologetically.
"Sorry."
"I guess you've seen her today, huh?" she questioned.
"Well, yeah. She came to give me something."
"But did you see who she left with afterwards?"
The strange sensation he'd felt before suddenly attacked him once again. Tackling him and bringing him out of balance.
"What's with him?" he asked, voice lower and more dangerous.
"Well, isn't it obvious they're…" she put up her pinky.
"They're not!" he yelled.
"Kanou-san." she suddenly spoke kindly, pulling his attention. "Would you please listen to why I wanted to speak to you in private?"
He calmed down, realising he was being rude to her.
"Please do." he said, staring at the ground, fists clenching.
"I love you, Kanou-san." His head shot up.
"You what?"
"I love you. That's why I wanted to talk to you. And because Ruri's apparently not going to make a pass at you, I thought I should tell you."
"Make a pass at me?" he stood up. "Do you really think she's that kind of person?"
"I know! Because I'm a girl too." He calmed down slightly.
He felt beaten, and as he stood there, arms hanging limply at his sides, she stood up and walked over to him.
She tiptoed and before he realised what was going on, she pressed her lips against his.
"Shuu-chan?"

He turned around, shocked by everything that was happening all at once. Why was Fuu kissing him and why did Ruri show up right at that moment?
"Ruri! This is not what…" he stopped as he saw her pained expression.

Ruri had never expected something like this to happen. Her fears had made her get outside and climb up towards his bedroom window right when they…
Tears welled up in her eyes as she saw them together. As she tried to avert her eyes, her gaze settled on the single book that lay spread on his bed.
'How to get and treat your girlfriend' it read.
"I'm sorry, I shouldn't have…come." she whispered the last part starting to let her drop.
She felt a strong hand around her wrist.
"Wait! Ruri! It's not what it looks like!" Kanou explained.
"I'm sorry." she replied, gently pulling her wrist back, which was harder than she expected. Somehow it looked like he really didn't want to let her go.
"I…I need to think."

His eyes were wide as he turned around to face Fuu.
"Why did you do that?" he asked in a dangerously low voice. Everyone of his team was aware that he had a short fuse in the weirdest of moments. Apparently -and even Fuu understood this- this was one of those moments.
"I love you! I told you that!"
"So someone else's opinion doesn't matter?" he asked.
"I…" she started.
"You're Ruri's best friend, right? Then why didn't she know you were going to be here? Don't girls normally share these kinds of things?" Somehow, as he fired all of his questions at her, he realized what had been going on. The strange look on Ruri's face, Masaru-kun, her waiting for him at the training field and the continuous string of texts she'd gotten without replying all the way to his house. Suddenly it all made sense.
"You didn't tell Ruri. Right?" he asked, pressing a palm over his eyes, suddenly feeling tired. Everything was ruined, and this girl standing in front of him was the reason.
"Indeed." she confessed. "How could I otherwise? You're so in love with her, and she's so in love with you yet neither of you do something about it! Then what's so wrong about me trying to get the one I love to love me back?" tears started flowing down her cheeks, making him feel bad for yelling at her.
"Still that's not the way." he concluded after a long pause.
"I'm sorry, but as you just said, I don't feel that way about you."
She gasped, the silence following more painful than a sword going right through your heart.
"Please, leave."
She nodded slowly -her silent tears never stopping- and bowed, leaving soon after.
"Now how am I going to solve this?" he wondered, sitting down on his bed once more. He glanced at the book and cursed his team mates for lending it to him.
Well, there was nothing more he could lose, better try out the book.
His eyes widened as he read a paragraph, hope suddenly alighting his whole being.

Ruri sat in her room, pressed with her back against the wall, crying in her arms. She knew well enough she couldn't blame Fuu for trying. Heck, she never had the power to do so even if she'd known Shuugo for so long. But now, everything was lost. The book was the clue that they were actually together. Perhaps even trying something more already. It disgusted her.
As she heard some known noises she looked up, only to see Shuugo crawl through her window, his expression serious. It sort of scared her a bit.

Before she realised what was going on, he was kneeling in front of her and bowed slightly. Her eyes widened at this. What was going on? Why was he here in her room, something he hadn't done for years? And why was he bowing, to her?

"I'm sorry." she heard him say. His voice was light, yet strong. Honest.
"No, it's okay. You have all the right to be with your gir-"

"She's not my girlfriend." he told her sternly. Her eyes widened as she looked him in the eyes. So determined and honest, the way he looked when he was pitching his best.
"But…"
"Let me explain…" he said, she waited. But the silence was never filled.
"Sorry, everything that's happened today is even too much for me to comprehend." he told her, smiling weakly.
"But this is true." he said, suddenly leaning closer, carefully pressing his lips against hers.
Her eyes widened. What was going on?
"Shuu what?" he put a finger on her lips. "Let me explain."

After he told her everything she felt like calming down. "I'm sorry I bumped in like that." she told him. He sat next to her now -the explaining had taken some time- glancing kindly at her.
"No worries." he said, smiling.
"But does this mean, you…love me too?"
"Too?" he asked, smile making place for a playful smirk.
Ruri found out about her mistake and started blushing furiously, quickly looking away.
At the moment she turned away though, she felt him lay a hand on her cheek, manoeuvring her so that she faced him and kissed her full on the lips.

Ruri's eyes lazily closed as she shifted her position. Sitting on her knees she wrapped her arms around his neck. Soon they both deepened the kiss as Shuugo slid his tongue over her lips. The sizzling feeling that had started in their hearts quickly made its way to their stomachs, only to let the feeling flow to the rest of their bodies.

For how long they'd been kissing they didn't know, but they both realised two things:

One: they were already comfortable -which made clear they'd been at it for a while- and Two: both of their parents were home -time to wrap things up.

"I'll see you tomorrow then?" Shuugo asked as he sat with on leg already out.
"Yes." she replied with a huge smile, the smile he'd missed.
They kissed once more and as he climbed down she whispered something to him.

He looked up and she repeated: "What about Fuu?"
"I'm not really mad anymore." he admitted, making her blush a deep shade of red. "I guess it's up to you now."
Ruri nodded, grateful.
"See you tomorrow."

"Tomorrow."

The end.

Whoa it took me soooo long to write this down! The worst part about it is that it wasn't even a writers block! I knew what had to happen, I knew how it was going to happen -even though I had to make some changes along the way- and how it was going to end, and still I had trouble with not only keeping the characters in check -something I'm afraid I failed in miserably- but also keeping to the plot! Phew, glad I was able to get it at the end. Well, somewhat.
Please Read and Review! Now, I'm going to get me a well-earned drink!
Oh one last thing, Sorry for OOC'ness!